3rd virus attack at Photo Bucket - BEWARE!

[deltadude]

I have already posted that I picked up a virus/trojan at Photobucket. It is not Photobucket, it is the pull through ads running in the columns. Those ads cycle so you may have not been attacked yet, but if the malicious ad is there when you arrive, your PC will be attacked.

I will be looking for another photo storage site until photobucket gets rid of their problem. I have already emailed them.

I use three programs for protection:
Router - router fire wall, and Windows Fire Wall are active, in addition 3 programs:

Avast the free version, there may be better AV out there but for the price Avast has done a great job for years protecting my system.

Superantispyware, this program is hard to beat, it has been tested in the most infested area "China" and no other program competes.. Detect and Remove Spyware, Adware and Remove Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers, Parasites, Rootkits, etc. This one I purchased, if you are infected and Superantispyware isn't fixing the problem you can run the diagnostic and their staff will try to solve your problem.. Not bad for a cheap price. SASW is what keeps catching th photobucket bugs. This is not false positives, because Winpatrol caught it too.

Winpatrol, this little freeware program is awesome, it catches things trying to join the Windows Startup, registery, and browser add-ons. Here is an example with the Photobucket trojan. Winpatrol caught the bug trying to add to Startup, it gives me a pop-up asking if I want to accept this or not. NO of course, but I can see what the name of the file or program is, and I write it down and quickly check google for info.

 

[garyt]

I have never had a problem, and I am sure they run some pretty high quality, high buck security there, too much to loose, reputation is at stake and a lot of money at risk. I would suspect the problem is elsewhere. And to say it happened 3 times tells me it is something in your computer calling home.

 

[garyt]

Do you have Malwarebytes.org, if not get it and run it. It is also free.

 

[ronp]

I had a prob awhile ago and couldn't get rid of MyWebsearch and ran a few of the above programs with no luck. Finally got Ad-aware http://lavasoft.com/ and it caught it on the first try.

Oh, for 24 dollars a year you can get rid of the ads on Photobucket just register your account.

 

[alx]

I got a virus today on photobucket myself....My security nabbed it....I believe this problem crashed my registry last week....

It trys to make you purchase a security upgrade from microsoft if you give them your credit card....Phony offer.....I believe that one started with an unathorized update for adobe.....

I know of 2 other sites having big time problems at moment as well...

 

[dirt guy]

I had the same experience. It started with an Adobe Update as well. I don't believe mine came from Photobucket, though.

 

[alx]

I am pretty certain that this mornings was from photobucket as i was using the site when the security system caught it.....I am not huge into the computer thing,but i think adobe flash player is what runs alot of those annoying pop-ups on photobucket....My couple pennies....not real sure though....

 

[meateater]

Ive been running Norton Pro for almost 10 years with no successful attacks. Best money Ive spent.

 

[meat hunter]

I've been runnng a mac for the last 15 years. What are these viruses you guys keep talking about.

 

[jon foster]

Mac's have a considerably less risk level to virus issues and other malicious attacks. Virus attacks on Linux are basically zero.

But I love everyone that uses Microsoft products. If Windows wasn't such a bad product in general with all the bad things out there that target it, I wouldn't have a stable income.

Jon.

 

[ddave]

Kind of like Mac and Linux share of the market.

If there were more Mac and Linux machines out there, they would be more attractive targets and the black hats would spend time looking for ways to exploit them as well.

Dave

 

[alx]

Good point.....
Mayberry sounds good...

 

[jon foster]

True enough. The wide spread use of Mac's will cause more attacks for sure. The same could be true for Linux as well. Except systems like Linux and Unix have been in use for many years by the most serious of companies and businesses around the world because they are much more secure and stable by design. They are also far superior in dependability, efficiency and performance. Look at any mission critical system and you'll be looking at a system that doesn't use Microsoft products.

I'm not saying Mac's or Linux/Unix systems are perfect. Nothing is perfect, but they are at least trying to advance security, safety, performance and plain old customer satisfaction on a regular basis.

Jon.

 

[alx]

Well said and very much true......

 

[deltadude]

I try to give a heads up to our SMF community and someone who didn't ask a single question, makes an announcement that the problem is my PC!

TWO others just posted they had the same problem!

My son picked up a similar virus from another site, it happens to be another social/community service site like Photobucket, and has been mentioned with photobucket as not the source but where the user picked up the virus.

I never said Photobucket was the source,
It might not be ads, it could be something else, still trying to find out.

If anyone has a similar problem feel free to PM me, I will be happy to share anything I learned. I will tell you that my anti-virus-malware software could only clean a part of this.

When you get that message you will know you are infected, and you, probably can't open Task Manager, you may not be able to access your virus software, and possibly lose you entire desktop.

 

[thunderdome]

I run AVG free, and keep up with database updates.

Also, Malwarebyte as well (about once a quarter).

If the virus blocks your ability to run your avg, norton, or mcafee, then try ComboFix

 

[alx]

Thanks for the info man...This is hitting certain places hard ....definetly not the time for certain folks to be opening links and the trap e-mails/links are hitting some well established forums etc..very hard right now...

 

[flash]

No issues on my PC. I've never seen ads on Photobucket.

 

[mballi3011]

I have been running Norton for years now and really haven't had a problem except from our kids and the facebook and myspace sites. I have gotten viruses from them sites a couple of times. Now my photobucket has been acting weird lately or maybe not but it has deleted all of my old pictures or this site.

 

[deltadude]

This articles gives a good general overview of how browsing results in Drive-by virus attacks even at the biggest sites.

You will read how some out of date apps that run through your browser make your PC a target.